Speaking of voters in Indiana and around the country, she said "they would love seeing that kind of debate and discussion, remember that's what happened during the Lincoln-Douglas debates ..... I think that would be good for the Democratic Party, it would be good for our democracy and it would be great for Indiana."

Now, she's made him seem fusty and fussy.

"We've had 21 and so what we've said we're two weeks, two big states we want to make sure we're talking to as many folks as possible on the ground taking questions from voters," Obama said. "We're not going to have debates between now and Indiana."

It's a political tactic, but I would think that voters in each primary state think they deserve a debate about their concerns. Obama loses a few points in Indiana and NC when he doesn't commit to a debate.

Wasn't Obama just complaining about how he wasn't given an opportunity to talk about "the issues" in the last debate? I guess he figured he could skip talking about them after all.

Seriously, though, I think this is more about influencing Indiana (where Clinton has a shot at winning), rather than influencing North Carolina. Clinton probably doesn't care about the debate in itself; she's just taking the opportunity to make it look like Obama's afraid of her.

He has time for FOX News, but not a 90 minute debate about the issues facing the fine voters in the great state of Indiana? Even *if* we eliminate all those horrible moderators? There have only been four debates between the two of them.

C'mom Barack. This is for President! Hillary said anytime/anywhere. Whacha 'fraid of. Huh?

Kathy Whitmire, the first female mayor of Houston (back in the 80s) had a situation in which the man she was running against didn't want to debate her. She put out ads asking him to come out and fight like a man. That managed to get some attention at the time and make her opponent look like a wimp. Looks like Hillary is using that tactic here. Good for her.

I don't think Obama means to stand up to Ahmadinejad so much as use the magic of his Persuasiveness to make him stop being a crazy extremist who's trying to get nukes. I know I'm not the first to wonder why he can't first use his Voice-of-Saruman powers to make Hillary quit the race, as sort of a proof of concept.

garage mahal said... If he can't stand up to a woman, how is he going to stand up to Ahmadinejad?

Great yucks, Garage, especially if you slap a poster up of Black Messiah looking nervous at the faces of both Hillary and Michelle along with Ahmadinejad.

Higher nervousness by Team Axelrod-Obama would be caused by Hillary asking Barack to send out a "suitable Dook professor" to defend Barack.

Worst of all, since there WILL be a Republican primary in North Carolina the same day, to invite McCain to sit down with her for 90 minutes to discuss matters if Barack ducks it. (though at this time McCain's handlers will try blocking it because they want to run against Obama now rather than The Monster That Will Not Just Quit and Accept The Black Messiah..)

CedarIt is friggin hilarious watching the auto outrage and the frantic mobs of Clinton Junkies waiting at HuffPuke and TPM for their next fix. But, it's hard to get drunk twice in the same day, and you can feel like some of the life is being sucked out. Her campaign is a shameless steamroller feeding off the negativity thrown at it getting stronger for it. She won't go away, but more than that her supporters won't go away.

In her victory speech in PA there was a dude set in the backdrop with boxing gloves on smacking them together while she worked out crowd. A commentator at Taylor Marsh said:

Well, the media will try their hardest to cover for him, of course, as they've been doing for months now. But he's in for a big shock if he wins and he realizes they can't make him look perfect when he starts actually making real decisions. And the whole benevolently condescending routine is not going to play well in press conferences.

He obviously doesn't realize just how easy they've made it for him up to this point. Pretty scary how soft -- and how clueless -- he is.

"can't make him look perfect when he starts actually making real decisions"

One of Obambi's problems is that he only makes decisions when he's been backed into a corner. If elected, he would be the most feckless president ever. Considering that company includes Carter, Harding, Hoover, Grant, Pierce, and Buchanan, that's heady company.

Kathy Whitmire, the first female mayor of Houston (back in the 80s) had a situation in which the man she was running against didn't want to debate her. She put out ads asking him to come out and fight like a man. That managed to get some attention at the time and make her opponent look like a wimp. Looks like Hillary is using that tactic here. Good for her.

God forbid Obama face an unscripted moment, where someone might say "Look, drop the 'hope/change' crap, what will you do if...."

As Palladian said.

This was a brilliant move, playing to her strengths and against his weakness.

This is also an important point. Part of being president is the ability to lead through words. We've had eight years of a fumblemouth president, who couldn't articulate his policies. He was defenseless against the media and the Democrats.

Obama's performance on the stump, when he's off-script, indicates that he would be worse than Bush. The more he opens his mouth, the deeper he sticks his foot in.

And this lack of speaking ability will hurt him, not only at the podium and at press conferences, but when he's dealing with politicians. Is he going to be able to reach across the aisle, as he's promised, without coming across as condescending? Is he going to be able to deal with the huge egos in the Senate and House without coming across as arrogant? Can he effectively lead?

All that begins with the ability to string together words effectively, and without a script, he hasn't shown the ability to do that. This will make him an ineffective president.

CBS's North Carolina debate was originally scheduled for Passover, and Clinton rightfully declined out of respect for the Jewish community... a lead Obama would have been wise to follow, considering his problems with the Jewish vote. Obama refused to debate for the rescheduled NC debate. Am I to understand his new politics basically consists of hashing things out with every kind of bad leader in the world but not hashing things out with members of your own party?

We haven't had any real debates so far, and there are only two ways we're going to have real debates.

Under this plan, policy experts from across the spectrum - not newsreaders - would ask the candidates and their experts a series of questions designed to reveal the flaws in their policies. Needless to say, such a format would be vigorously opposed by partisan hacks because it would reveal that none of the three candidates are qualified.

The second way is for regular citizens to go to campaign appearances and ask the questions the MSM won't, then upload their response to video sites.

Althouse has shown a complete inability to understand what a real question and a real debate looks like, but that doesn't mean that others can't push either plan.

CBS's North Carolina debate was originally scheduled for Passover, and Clinton rightfully declined out of respect for the Jewish community

Good to know. I never realized the second night of Passover was so important. But just when did she make this decision? Did she similarly ask the state of Pennsylvania to move the Passover Primary? Just how big is the Jewish community in North Carolina anyways?